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'House of Horrors' abortionist case: Three out of seven murder charges thrown out on technicality

Philadelphia
abortionist Dr. Kermit Gosnell, accused of running a filthy clinic that
preyed upon poor immigrant mothers has had three out of his seven
murder charges thrown out. Common pleas court Judge Jeffrey Minehart
dismissed the first-degree murder charges against Gosnell, but did not
explain the reasoning behind his ruling.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Prosecutors have argued that the babies were viable and Gosnell and his staff severed the backs of their necks to kill them.

Defense lawyer Jack McMahon had argued Tuesday "there is not one piece of objective, scientific evidence that anyone was born alive" at Gosnell's clinic.

Gosnell still faces charges that he killed a patient and four other babies allegedly born alive. In addition, all five abuse of a corpse charges have also been dropped.

Gosnell stands accused in the murder of a woman in a botched abortion and seven other charges in connection with live-birth abortions.

The defense maintains that there were no live births at Gosnell's Women's Medical Center abortion clinic and contends the babies died during abortions and their necks were snipped afterwards.

Former Gosnell staffers had testified they saw signs of life even after the abortion had been completed, saying the babies "jumped" and "screamed" -- and tried to escape.

Gosnell has reportedly had an almost flippant attitude toward his macabre abortion practices shocked the nation.

"The Gosnell case is a watershed moment for the issue of abortion," President of Operation Rescue and Pro-Life Nation Troy Newman says. "The discovery of his horrific practices helped shed light on an abortion industry that has run amok without oversight or accountability for decades, and has prompted significant changes in abortion laws and attitudes toward enforcement in several states."

Gosnell's wife Pearl had previously pleaded guilty to assisting her husband. Pearl Gosnell was considering a plea deal similar to the one several of Gosnell's former abortion center employees have made, pleading guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence in exchange for their testimony.

Pearl Gosnell worked at the Women's Medical Society abortion business her husband ran as a full-time medical assistant from 1982 until she married him in 1990, when she switched to only working on Sundays. At that time, the abortion business was officially closed but would do its latest-term abortions possible.

The grand jury report indicates Pearl Gosnell testified that she alone helped Kermit do abortions on Sundays when she would "help do the instruments" in the operating room - in spite of no medical training.